Usually when I think of Brazilian music made by artists from that country I think of Samba and Bossa Nova but with the release of Samba Of Sorts in 2025, Unity Quartet makes a pitch for Brazil as a hub of new jazz fusion. This first album by Unity Quartet, entitled Samba Of Sorts, features an impressive lineup of Brazilian musicians including Hélio Alves, Guilherme Monteiro, Gili Lopes and Alex Kautz. A subtle South American jazz influence permeates the grooves while being based in New York City gives the album a more cutting edge sound.

On Samba Of Sorts, the interplay between the punctuated grand piano style of Hélio and the Metheny-esque electric guitar textures of Guilherme comes across in memorable waves of swinging world fusion at times echoing the mid 1970s Tom Jobim mellowness during his CTI / A&M years as well as the international rise of Brazil’s resident musical genius Milton Nascimento, whose 1978 A&M debut Milton was also a huge influence on jazz and fusion fans. Both Guilherme and Alves get superb backup from Gili Lopes (bass) and Alex Kautz (drums). All four members are also fine composers.

In addition to the Milton Nascimento cover and four originals, there are other worthy covers of Brazilian composers Hermeto Pascoal and a co-written instrumental fusion track by Steve Winwood guitar ace José Pires de Almeida Neto. Unity Quartet weaves their Brazilian influences into their own version of instrumental jazz fusion, that can be appreciated on their 2025 recording, Samba of Sorts.

RMR Speaks To Helio Alves of Unity Quartet

RMR: I didn’t know there was a network of Brazilian musicians working in New York and New York City. How long has the band been living and working in NY and what are your overall impressions of New York City and NY State too?

Helio Alves: We all live in New York City, and we all have been in the US for a long time... there are many great Brazilian Jazz musicians in NY. New York is the jazz capital of the world, no doubt, so we are heavily influenced by jazz and the richness of cultures of this big city. We all love living and working here in NY, and this beautiful New York State.

RMR: Tell us where Samba Of Sorts was recorded and did you have a producer and engineer that worked with you in the studio and who else do you credit with the album production and overall sound? Tell us how the album came to be released by Sunnyside Records, one of the prominent jazz record companies in New York.

Helio Alves: We recorded Samba of Sorts at Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn, a studio owned by Michael Brorby. The recording engineer was Peter Karl and David Darlington mixed the album for us. They all did a fantastic job capturing the natural sounds of the instruments. We produced the album ourselves.

I met Francois Zalacain from Sunnyside Records a long time ago, we have many friends in common. They are a fantastic label that are committed to jazz and improvised music for a really long time. We approached them with this new project and they were really interested right away. We are really proud to have our first album out with this fantastic label.

RMR: In addition to the original tracks, Unity Quartet cover some prominent composers and artists on the Samba Of Sorts album, including Milton Nascimento, Hermeto Pascoal and José Neto. What is your connection to these Brazilian composers and what era of their music is most influential to you? I guess you didn’t want to cover any music by Tom Jobim as it would be too obvious? Tell us about other Brazilian influences and how it influenced Samba Of Sorts. For those that don’t know, what styles besides Samba can be heard on the album?

Helio Alves: Yes, we all know José Neto, he’s fantastic. I worked with him in Airto and Flora’s band. That song “Jogral” he co-wrote with Filo Machado and Djavan. We all love Jobim, of course, but we really wanted to include in this album other famous Brazilian composers that influenced us. Milton Nascimento is legendary, a fantastic composer that has almost no label, his music is universal.

Hermeto Pascoal is a genius; he plays all instruments and styles. Luiz Gonzaga is also legendary accordion player and composer, the creator of a whole style of Brazilian music called Baião. We tried to cover different styles, samba, baião and forró, from the northeast of Brazil, and even a little bit of straight ahead jazz.

RMR: What American artists, bands and composers have influenced you? I hear a Pat Metheny influence on the album, especially the guitar sound. What other composers and bands have influences the style and sound of Unity Quartet?

Helio Alves: Besides the Brazilian artists, we are all influenced by the all jazz greats, and classical; Pat Metheny is definitely one, plus Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Debussy, Ravel… The list goes on and on…

RMR: What concert venues do you enjoy playing in NYC and the tri-state area as well as in other places in the US and North America overall? Where else would you like to play a concert in the US or elsewhere?

Helio Alves: We have been playing monthly at a great place called Lunatico here in NYC. That gave us a great chance to develop the band, and we really enjoy that. We just had our CD release party at Nublu here in New York, and we are working on other concerts in the US and North America, stay tuned! We really enjoy playing in places like the Blue Note here in New York, Regattabar in Boston and The Side Door in Connecticut. 

RMR: What future plans do you have for 2025 as far as composing, recording and live concerts?

Helio Alves: We are looking forward to playing live as much as we can in 2025. Also we are already working on tunes for the next album, and hopefully having it out next year!